The Israeli model who won Miss Israel Champion has faced an attack during a Palestinian rally. After the Israeli attacks on Palestine, where countries around the world are attracted, citizens are also holding peaceful rallies.
A rally was being held by the citizens in New York City in the American state of New York, in the meantime, Miss Israel 2021 Nova Kushva was attacked by a young man who was among the protesters.
According to foreign media reports, Nova was in New York City when the incident happened, on March 30, during a rally in New York City’s Times Square in favor of Palestine.
At the same time, Nova was also present near the same rally. Nova, who is part of the Israeli army, said that Israel advocacy was going on in Times Square.
ISRAEL said the US Senate’s approval of US$13 billion in military aid sent a “strong message” to its enemies, with attacks hitting Gaza in its war once morest the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
Israel’s foreign minister thanked the US Senate for approving the military aid package following approval from the House of Representatives.
“The Israeli aid package now approved by both houses of Congress is a clear testament to the strength of our alliance and sends a strong message to all our enemies,” wrote Israel Katz on the social media site X.
Conditions in Rafah are quite tense. Concerns are rising following Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will soon follow through on repeated threats to send troops to the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where 1.5 million people are taking shelter, many of them in makeshift encampments.
Israel says Rafah is Hamas’ last stronghold, but aid groups warn any invasion would create an “apocalyptic situation”.
Early Wednesday, hospital and security sources in Gaza reported Israeli airstrikes on Rafah, as well as the central refugee camp of Nuseirat.
Also read: UN warns of explosion in Gaza child deaths due to famine
“Everyone seems to be counting down to the war in the world’s largest refugee camp, Rafah,” Norwegian Refugee Council chairman Jan Egeland told AFP.
Protests on US campuses
The aid comes amid growing protests once morest Israel’s actions in the war once morest Hamas, which have reduced much of Gaza to rubble and sparked fears of famine.
Hundreds of students have been arrested in recent days in pro-Palestinian demonstrations on the campuses of leading universities in the United States, Israel’s main ally and military supplier.
Also read: US wants a temporary ceasefire in Gaza, Hamas is reluctant
The UN said “numerous obstacles” continued to hamper the delivery of urgently needed aid to civilians in dire need of food, water, shelter and medicine.
But Netanyahu has vowed to press ahead with a planned offensive on Rafah, on the besieged border region with Egypt.
Citing Egyptian officials’ explanation of Israel’s plans, the Wall Street Journal said Israel planned to move civilians from Rafah to nearby Khan Yunis within two to three weeks.
Also read: Fears of Attack Increase in Rafah following Israel Rescues 2 Hostages
Satellite images shared by Maxar Technologies show tent camps recently set up in the area.
The Journal reported that Israel will then send troops to Rafah in stages, targeting areas where Hamas leaders are thought to be hiding in a military operation expected to last six weeks.
The war began with an unprecedented Hamas attack on October 7 that resulted in the deaths of around 1,170 people, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
In retaliation, Israel launched a military offensive that has killed at least 34,183 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
The Israeli army announced the death of a soldier in Gaza, raising the death toll to 261 since the ground operation began.
Israel estimates that 129 of the approximately 250 people kidnapped during the Hamas offensive are still in Gaza, including 34 people thought to have died.
Stuck in the sand
Public pressure is mounting on Netanyahu’s government to reach a ceasefire deal that would guarantee the release of the remaining hostages.
Abu Obeida, a spokesman for Hamas’ armed wing, said that “the enemy is still trapped in the sands of Gaza” and the hostages would “most likely” not return home soon.
On Tuesday, the UN human rights office said it was “horrified” by reports of mass graves discovered in two of the largest hospitals in the Gaza Strip following Israel’s siege and raid.
Israel has repeatedly targeted the hospital during the war, accusing Hamas of using the hospital as a command center and taking hostages on October 7. Hamas denies the accusations.
The Gaza Civil Defense Agency said nearly 340 bodies were recovered from people killed and buried by Israeli forces at Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Yunis.
The Israeli army said that its claims of burying the bodies of Palestinians were “baseless”, without directly addressing accusations that Israeli forces were behind the killings.
The army said that “bodies buried by Palestinians” had been inspected by Israeli forces for hostages and then “returned to their places”.
UN Human Rights chief Volker Turk called for an “independent” investigation into the deaths at Nasser Hospital and Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, stressing the “special protection” afforded to medical facilities under international law.
AFP images from the scene showed many bodies wearing white shrouds in front of the bombed Nasser Hospital.
UN human rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said some of the bodies found at Nasser Hospital were allegedly “found with their hands tied and stripped of their clothes”, adding that efforts were being made to corroborate the report.
The White House said it would discuss the issue with Israel.
“Obviously the mass grave scene in general is deeply worrying but I don’t have anything to confirm the truth,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters. (AFP/Z-3)
#Israel #Calls #Military #Assistance #Strong #Message #Enemies
THE volunteers were not aware of plans to evacuate Palestinians from the southernmost city of Gaza ahead of the Israeli attack. They consider the transfer impossible under current conditions.
“The rumors are that the possibility of a major operation in Rafah is increasing,” said Fabrizio Carboni, Middle East Regional Director for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), on the sidelines of an aid conference in the United Arab Emirates.
“When we see the extent of the damage in the central region (Gaza) and in the north, it is not clear to us where people will be moved to where they can get proper shelter and essential services,” he added.
“So right now, with the information we have and from our position, we don’t see this (massive evacuation) as possible,” he continued.
More than 1.5 million of Gaza’s 2.4 million residents have taken refuge in Rafah, the last major population center in Gaza that Israeli ground forces have not yet entered, although thousands have been seen returning north.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been talking for two months regarding sending troops to Rafah to go following Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that controls Gaza.
Also read: Israeli attack on Rafah kills 22 people, a pregnant woman and 18 children
On Sunday, he said the Israeli military would increase pressure to “deliver additional and painful blows” to the group behind the October 7 attack on Israel that sparked the ongoing war.
But Israel’s allies including Washington have warned once morest carrying out an operation in Rafah, fearing it would worsen the already disastrous humanitarian situation in Gaza.
“At the moment we do not see any plans for the evacuation of civilians,” Carboni said during an interview on Tuesday at the Dubai International Humanitarian Aid and Development Conference (DIHAD).
Also read: Gaza Strip Official: Israeli Attack Kills Nine Family Members in Rafah
But there is no requirement for military operations to be without devastating humanitarian consequences.
“Given the level of destruction, given people are exhausted, some of them are injured and sick, and limited access to food and essential services, I see (evacuation) as very challenging.”
The Israeli government said it was planning different evacuation scenarios, including the construction of a tent city that would be spared from the fighting and would be built with international support.
Also read: Israeli attack in Rafah kills women and children
Citing Egyptian officials’ explanation of Israel’s plans, the Wall Street Journal reported that the evacuation operation would last two to three weeks and be carried out in coordination with the United States and Arab countries, including the UAE and Egypt.
But Carboni said the evacuation would be “difficult” to complete within that timeframe.
Speaking to AFP at DIHAD on Tuesday, Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) chairman Jan Egeland said everyone seemed to be counting down to fighting in the world’s largest refugee camp, Rafah.
Describing the Rafah attack as an “apocalyptic situation,” Egeland added that aid workers operating in Gaza had not been briefed on plans to reduce the suffering of civilians during the Rafah attack.
“There is no information, no consultation with humanitarian agencies, no advice, no hope,” he said.
Humanitarian activists in Gaza have not heard from donors.
They hear nothing from Western countries that support Israel, and nothing from Israel itself,” Egeland said.
“What they heard was that Netanyahu said he would attack but did not plan where civilians should go, how aid might be provided or how access might be secured,” he said.
“We really don’t know how to mitigate this countdown to disaster,” he explained.
The small amount of aid that goes into Gaza is distributed in real-time so there is no reserve pool that can be used in the event of a large-scale population movement.
“There are no stocks, no fuel and more importantly, no liquidity. There is no money, we cannot pay our staff’s salaries. We cannot pay those who provide these services,” the NRC chairman added.
Egeland said some Palestinians had returned to areas in northern Gaza in recent weeks, but more than a million people remained in Rafah.
“For those who have left what awaits them in the north are ruins, total ruins and unexploded bombs and, in many cases, more bombings,” he said.
“There is no safe place in Gaza if people leave Rafah,” he continued.
The Gaza war began with an unprecedented Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 that resulted in the deaths of 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.
Israeli counterattacks have killed at least 34,183 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. (AFP/Z-8)
#Evacuation #Rafah #Refugees #Difficult
PRESIDENT Joe Biden supports freedom of expression on United States (US) campuses, the White House said on Wednesday, as a growing number of students protested Israel’s war on Gaza.
The ongoing protests at Columbia University in New York have sparked huge attention from the media and politicians – and similar demonstrations are taking place across the country.
The protesters said they were expressing solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, where the death toll reached 34,200, according to the Hamas government’s Health Ministry.
But pro-Israel advocates and others concerned regarding campus safety have pointed to anti-Semitic incidents. They argue the campus encourages intimidation and hate speech.
“The president believes that freedom of speech, debate and non-discrimination on campus are important,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at a briefing.
“We believe that everyone can express themselves in a peaceful way. But when we talk regarding hateful rhetoric, when we talk regarding violence, we have to stop it.”
Also read: Joe Biden Reveals Benjamin Netanyahu’s Ulcers and Urges Israel to Agree to a Ceasefire
Biden on Sunday denounced “blatant anti-Semitism” that has “no place on college campuses.”
Meanwhile at Columbia, Republican House speaker Mike Johnson denounced the “virus of anti-Semitism,” and called on the university’s president to resign.
“If this is not addressed immediately, and if these threats and intimidation are not stopped, this is the time for the National Guard,” Johnson said.
Also read: Benjamin Netanyahu rejects Joe Biden’s criticism of Israel’s war policy in Gaza
In a notable incident in 1970, the National Guard at Kent State University in Ohio opened fire on students during an anti-Vietnam War protest, killing four.
As pro-Palestinian protests spread, hundreds of demonstrators at the University of Texas came into standoff with state troopers, while elsewhere, riot police pushed back protesters, according to videos on social media.
Amid growing anger over the death toll in Gaza – especially among America’s younger generation – Washington has gone out of its way to support Israel as Biden seeks re-election in November.
The White House on Wednesday demanded “answers” from Israeli authorities following mass graves were discovered in Gaza – while President Joe Biden on the same day also approved billions of dollars in military aid to his key Middle East ally. (AFP/Z-3)
#President #Joe #Biden #Supports #Freedom #Expression #Campuses